Unbeatably prestigious, very expensive new, and also amazingly fast – that’s the coupé version of Mercedes-Benz’s S-class from the W126 series. It quickly became the luxury coupé of choice for successful businesspeople and media personalities and is undoubtedly one of the best-engineered cars of its era. Even by today’s standards, performance and ride quality are simply superb.

The coupé was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor show in 1981, two years after the S class saloon had been presented. It was only available with V8 engines, initially as 380 SEC and 500 SEC.